10 of Princess Diana's dresses up for auction

BRUCE OLDFIELD EVENING GOWN
The Bruce Oldfield black-as-midnight velvet evening gown, worn at the opening-night gala of “Les Misérables” in London in 1985, epitomizes Diana’s rebellious streak. “Black was a favorite color of the princess, despite royal protocols which dictated that it should be worn only for mourning,” says Taylor. “She flouted the rule from the very start.”
1997 price: sold for $36,800
Expected in 2013: up to $75,000

Diana donned this black gown to a “Les Miz” London premiere in 1985.

Tim Graham/Getty Images

CATHERINE WALKER EVENING GOWN AND BOLERO
The most lavishly embroidered and exotic-looking of the bunch, this Catherine Walker Mughal-inspired evening gown and bolero turned heads during Diana’s state visit to India in February 1992. The tour was a disaster because it emphasized the distance between the princess and Prince Charles, whose marriage was, by then, a sham. “It was during this visit that Diana was photographed sitting alone, quite deliberately, in front of the Taj Mahal, the monument to lost love,” explains Taylor.
1997 price: $61,900
Expected in 2013: up to $180,000

CATHERINE WALKER CREPE GOWN
Diana ruffled feathers when she wore this Catherine Walker gown at the London after-party for Liza Minnelli’s film “Stepping Out” in 1991. According to the royal family, after-parties were highly improper. Diana later told biographer Andrew Morton that she enjoyed the bash because she and Minnelli enjoyed a “very honest conversation between two women who had suffered much in life.”
1997 price: $26,450
Expected in 2013: up to $90,000

Dressed in an asymmetrical gown, Diana attended a banquet on a state visit to Brazil in 1991.

Tim Graham/Getty Images

VICTOR EDELSTEIN EVENING GOWN
The star of the sale is the Victor Edelstein gown worn to a state dinner at the White House in 1985, when Diana danced with actor John Travolta. Nancy Reagan invited the heartthrob, who was told not to bring a companion. He later described how the first lady took him aside and said the princess had only one wish on her visit to the US — to dance with him! Diana wore the gown repeatedly after that, most notably for her last portrait by photographer Lord Snowdon in 1997. “That time, she filled the dress out perfectly,” says Taylor. “When she wore it [with Travolta 12 years earlier], she looked beautiful but painfully thin.”
1997 price: $222,500
Expected in 2013: up to $450,000

Going for a spin with John Travolta at the White House in 1985.

AP

ZANDRA RHODES COCKTAIL DRESS
The princess fell in love with this draped cocktail dress from British designer Zandra Rhodes. “You’ve got this very pretty, little-girl white chiffon, which is so ingénue, so innocent and so girly,” says Taylor. “It contrasts to the sexier dresses she wore when she was more confident and self-assured.” Taylor adds that her close friend Rhodes helped unpack the gown when it arrived from the US, and “fondly reminisced about the fittings in the mid-’80s and how sweet Diana was.”
1997 price: sold for $41,400
Expected in 2013: up to $60,000

CATHERINE WALKER SHEATH WITH EMBROIDERED TAILCOAT
This Catherine Walker ensemble, worn to the London premiere of “Steel Magnolias” in 1990, was originally offered to Diana as a tailcoat but she wanted a matching dress. It is expected to sell for more than three times the price paid by Dunkel, in 1997, when it was sold at Christie’s to assist Diana’s chosen charities, just two months before her death. “It’s sad to say it, but the fact that the princess is no longer with us has a positive effect on the value,” says Hope, NJ-based appraiser Brian Kathenes. Remarks Taylor: “The dress was [also] worn during a state visit to South Korea in 1992. State visits add to the appreciation because there are stories behind the dress.”
1997 price: sold for $24,150
Expected in 2013: up to $90,000

VICTOR EDELSTEIN EVENING GOWN
Forties-inspired with “Dynasty”-style padded shoulders, this bottle-green velvet Victor Edelstein gown made in 1985 was worn only for private entertaining, so there are no public photographs of Diana wearing it. “The dress has what looks like a tiny handprint on the skirt, which could have easily been dry-cleaned out, but it’s part of the charm,” Taylor reveals. “The suspicion is that it could have been a little prince saying: ‘Don’t go out, Mummy!’ Who knows?” Maureen Dunkel, who exhibited the dresses for her now-defunct nonprofit, the People’s Princess Charitable Foundation, after Diana’s death, prided herself on never laundering or letting anyone wear them. “They always had the same DNA,” adds Taylor.
1997 price: sold for $32,200
Expected 2013 price: up to $45,000

CATHERINE WALKER EVENING GOWN
In 1997, the year she died, Diana appeared on the cover of “Vanity Fair” in this sexy, black halter-neck Catherine Walker gown in a portrait by Mario Testino. She’d also worn a silk crepe version of the same dress at a gala dinner at the Palace of Versailles three years earlier. “I felt really sad when we unpacked it because Diana wore it in her prime — when she was healthy, happy and very much her own woman,” says Taylor.
1997 price: $57,500
Expected in 2013: up to $1 million

CATHERINE WALKER BURGUNDY CRUSHED-VELVET EVENING GOWN
Diana wore the burgundy crushed-velvet gown numerous times, including a state visit to Australia in 1985, 11 months after its first airing at the London premiere of “Back to the Future.” Says Taylor: “If she liked [the dresses], she’d wear them a few times. She wasn’t afraid to be seen in them more than once. That’s something of a British royal tradition.”
1997 price: $26,450
Expected in 2013: up to $75,000